Most distillery visits go something like this: You yawn through a guide’s brand-centric spiel, squint at some sepia-toned photos, meander between barrels and stills, and—if you’re lucky—gulp down a free farewell dram. But at The Macallan’s new sleek, tech-forward visitor center in northeastern Scotland designed by London-based architects at Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, cookie-cutter tours are the last thing you can expect come June 2, opening day.

It took six years, 8,000 tons of steel, and $189.2 million to transform a windswept barley field on the Macallan estate into a modern architectural marvel the likes of which the Scottish Highlands have never seen. From above, the facility—which houses both the distillery and the visitor center—looks like a space-age Hobbiton with its grassy, undulating roof of steam-belching knolls. Viewed head on, it’s more industrial than organic—all polished concrete, exposed metal tubes, and soaring curtain walls. You could say it falls somewhere between Madrid–Barajas Airport Terminal 4 and Luís Rebelo de Andrade’s Tree Snakes House on the design spectrum.

“We wanted a structure that would bring The Macallan into the future while rooting it in its past,” says Ken Grier, the brand’s creative director, highlighting that The Macallan began making scotch in 1824. “Architecturally speaking, we were inspired by everything from Scottish brochs, those prehistoric landforms half burrowed underground, to ultramodern wineries like Bodegas Ysios and Marqués de Riscal in Rioja.”

You typically can't take a photo of stills on a whisky tour (lest you risk igniting alcohol fumes). You'll just have to enjoy this one, and the memories, on a Macallan tour.

Photo by Ian Gavan

The first thing you notice when you enter the distillery—located about an hour east of Inverness—is the wavy wooden ceiling comprised of 380,000 cross-hatching components that fit together like a jigsaw puzzle with no glue, mortar, or hammering. It was such a new, risky design that Grier said everyone breathed a sigh of relief when the whole thing didn’t collapse. According to RSH+P, it’s the most complex timber roof in the world.

To the left of the entrance, your eyes will wander up a story-high glass wall containing 840 coveted Macallan archive bottles spanning from Victorian times to the present, each with its own digital file (accessible via touchscreen) with 360-degree photos, in-depth specs, and video content.

The visit continues with multimedia nooks that appeal to all the senses. There’s a barrel room, where, after watching a fire-filled film starring sinewy Spanish coopers, you can “nose” various cask types (e.g., American bourbon-seasoned, Spanish sherry-seasoned) to understand the flavors each imparts. Then, feast your eyes on a display of 340 miniature scotch bottles lined up from light to dark in perfect gradation, and—behind them—the snow-dusted Ben Rinnes mountain through the floor-to-ceiling windows.

This distillery is more interactive than most, with videos and 360-degree photos to open the experience.

Photo by Alec Jacobson

But the tour’s greatest thrill is the stroll among the whirring, clanking mash tuns and burnished copper stills. After all, this is where one of the world’s most prized—and expensive—spirits in the world is made, and it’s here that you begin to grasp the magnitude, complexity, and commitment of The Macallan business model: Once the liquid is distilled, it has to sit in oak for at least 12 years before being blended and bottled.

By the time you wave goodbye to the guide, you’ll no doubt be hankering for a wee dram, and your $20 (£15) ticket entitles you to (count ‘em) four. Cash up at the handsome, oculus-shaped bar, which has 952 bottles to try. It’s like a “brewpub” except for scotch—the only whisky bar on earth where you’re overlooking the very place the spirit is being made.